KARIN NYBERG is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Gö teborg in Gö teborg, Sweden. JUDITH RITCHIE is a Professor in the Faculty of Nursing at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. This study emerged during a conversation among a group of nurses and midwives attending an international research conference. Members of the group were from diverse cultures and health care systems, yet their concerns were similar. Motivated primarily by economic rationalization, many health care delivery systems have moved postpartum care into the community through early discharge and follow-up programs. Many programs were developed to meet the needs of parents by professionals without clear directions from the consumers of care. The initial discussion raised questions as to whether parents' major postpartum needs were universal regardless of health systems, social policies, midwifery, or community nursing programs. This study was then undertaken based on the hypothesis that parental needs across societies may be more similar than different.